---
title: AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)
description: ADOT is AWS’s supported distribution of OpenTelemetry — SDKs and collectors for metrics, logs, and traces that export to CloudWatch Application Signals, X-Ray, AMP, and other backends.
url: https://www.factualminds.com/glossary/aws-distro-for-opentelemetry/
publishDate: 2026-07-22
updateDate: 2026-07-22
---

# AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)

> ADOT is AWS’s supported distribution of OpenTelemetry — SDKs and collectors for metrics, logs, and traces that export to CloudWatch Application Signals, X-Ray, AMP, and other backends.

## Definition

**AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT)** is Amazon’s supported build of the OpenTelemetry project — language SDKs, auto-instrumentation agents, Lambda layers, and the OpenTelemetry Collector distribution configured for AWS. Use ADOT to instrument applications once and export telemetry to **CloudWatch Application Signals** / X-Ray (traces), CloudWatch metrics/EMF, **Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus (AMP)**, or third-party OTLP backends.

## When to use it

- Net-new distributed tracing on ECS, EKS, EC2, or Lambda (prefer ADOT over X-Ray SDKs)
- Dual-export patterns: traces to Application Signals, metrics to AMP
- Teams standardizing on OpenTelemetry for portability

## When not to use it

- Tiny single-Lambda apps where CloudWatch agent auto-instrumentation / Application Signals defaults already suffice and you will never leave AWS
- Teams unwilling to operate or upgrade a collector sidecar/DaemonSet

## Tips

- X-Ray SDKs and Daemon entered **maintenance mode on February 25, 2026** — migrate to ADOT for new work
- Enable **Transaction Search** with Application Signals for full APM
- Keep collector versions patched; treat ADOT like any other data-plane dependency

## Gotchas

### Serious

- 100% sampling through ADOT into Application Signals can dominate CloudWatch spend
- Misconfigured resource attributes produce `UnknownService` on the service map

### Regular

- Collector-less OTLP endpoints exist — know when you still need a collector for processing/sampling

## Related FactualMinds content

- [Observability beyond CloudWatch (2026)](/blog/aws-observability-beyond-cloudwatch-otel-prometheus-grafana-2026/)
- [CloudWatch Application Signals](/glossary/cloudwatch-application-signals/)
- [Debug distributed AWS systems](/blog/debug-production-distributed-aws-systems/)

## Related AWS Services

- aws-managed-services
- devops-pipeline-setup
- aws-serverless

## Related Posts

- aws-observability-beyond-cloudwatch-otel-prometheus-grafana-2026
- aws-cloudwatch-observability-metrics-logs-alarms-best-practices
- debug-production-distributed-aws-systems
- prometheus-cardinality-explosion-amp-cloudwatch-cost-control

---

*Source: https://www.factualminds.com/glossary/aws-distro-for-opentelemetry/*